Emily Miller, "Pluto probe gets new assignment" 6th pd

Summary:
New Horizons, NASA's piano-sized spacecraft that recently snapped pictures on Pluto, has a new mission. It is now going to track down a small space object called PT1 (Potential Target 1). PT1 is located almost a billion miles beyond Pluto in the Kuiper Belt.
Already, New Horizons is 33.7 million miles beyond Pluto on its way to PT1. Scientists still have to get more money from NASA in order to fund the completion of New Horizons' mission. They are putting together a budget proposal for 2016. If the proposal gets approved, then New Horizons is expected to reach PT1 by 2019. Fortunately, the spacecraft was designed to keep working for many years, as it has plenty of extra fuel.

Analysis:
1. The author was Amanda Barnett. She writes about space and science for CNN Digital. She seems excited for the mission.
2. The article was published on Friday, August 28. It is fairly recent, so the information is up to date.
3. Prior to reading the article, I knew that New Horizons had recently visited Pluto. I had also seen the pictures. But I didn't know that the spacecraft was so sophisticated, and I was surprised to find out that it had other duties besides taking pictures of Pluto. My prior knowledge of the subject affected my understanding of this article because it piqued my interest.
4. The article was written for anyone who wanted to know more about Pluto, New Horizons, or space in general. It has a positive effect because it gets us hopeful that New Horizons will reach PT1.
5. The article was written to let everyone know that New Horizons isn't done yet.
6. The main idea- New Horizons is going to investigate a space object.
7. Significance- this article is significant because it documents a scientific accomplishment. We were able to send a probe to Pluto, and it is so advanced that it can go a billion miles farther. The mission, as a whole, demonstrates the potential of space exploration. Our technology is becoming so advanced now that we might take advantage of the possibilities it offers and discover many more things about our universe.

Link- http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/28/us/nasa-new-horizons-new-mission/index.html